There was no one to work the ground.

Genesis 2, verse 5.

Welcome to today's encouragement from our daily bread.

A cultivated life in Christ was written by Matt Lucas and read by West Ward.

Genesis chapter 2, verses 4 through 9.

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created,

when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.

Now, no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and the heavens. Now, no shrub had yet appeared on the earth, and no plant had yet sprung up,

for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no one to work the ground.

But streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.

Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

And the man became a living being.

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there he put the man

he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing

to the eye and good for food, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A cultivated life in Christ, written by Matt Lucas.

When we built our home, it stood on little more than a muddy, empty lot at the end of a gravel road.

We needed grass, trees, and shrubs to match the surrounding Oregon foothills.

As I got out my lawn tools and set to work, I thought of the first garden waiting for humans.

No shrub had yet appeared on the earth, and no plant had yet sprung up, and there was no one to work the ground.

The creation account in Genesis 1 repeats God's assessment of creation. It was good or very good. However,

it wasn't complete. Adam and Eve needed to cultivate the ground to exercise stewardship of God's

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